Solar Empires
by hammerheadcruiser
Summary: The decades long war has reached a stalemate and even the smallest advantage could tip the scales. The Vasari have built one such advantage. But not for long if the Coalition has anything to say about it. Short story


Short creative writing project I though I would upload

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Solar Empires

In the darkness of space, just beyond the edge of the gravity well of the nearby border world of Bastion sat the combined fleets of the Emergency Trader Coalition Loyalists, ready for battle. Aboard the gargantuan titan class flagship, Admiral Chekov listened to the final preparations of the battle group from his command chair on the bridge of the TDN Hephaestus.

"Third fleet in position."

"Strike craft docked."

"Synchronizing fleet jump computers."

"Target destination locked."

After a brief pause, one of the newer navigation officers stood and saluted to the admiral.

"All fleets report ready, sir." She spoke with obvious pride; it wasn't every day one was assigned to the most one of the most advanced and powerful vessels in the navy. Chekov smiled slightly, then nodded and she returned to her console.

"Admiral, com from the rebel fleet." The communications officer said with thinly veiled distaste.

"Put it through." He schooled his features, his counterpart had been professional and he wouldn't be shown up by some rebel. A colourless hologram sprang up in the centre of the bridge, showing a thirty something woman with short, shoulder length hair and hands clasped behind her back. Her gaze held the steel he had come to expect from her, the commander of the Fenrir. The Ragnarov class warship was the Hephaestus's archenemy and she, admiral Hammer, his own long-time rival.

"Admiral Chekov, my fleets are ready. Signal when you are." The hologram winked out without fanfare. She ran a tight ship, something he had lost in the decades since this war started. He could respect her, had to after Abregato. Still a rebel though. Still the enemy.

"Thirty second countdown, charge the phase engines and signal the rebel fleet." The ever-present background hum of the engines increased by several orders of magnitude as the enormous phase drives of the warship readied themselves to jump. Thirty seconds appeared on the main screen.

"This is a priority assignment, one that even the rebels acknowledge the necessity of."

Huge ripples of reality appeared in front of the Hephaestus, this was repeated along the length of the assembled battle groups. The ripples became tears of light and colour as the phase drives forced their will upon the void.

Twenty seconds.

"The invaders, the Vasari have managed to develop what we are calling a Mark II phase gate. It almost triples the range and power of a Mark I gate." There were several gasps as the implications sunk in. The Vasari phase gates could already bridge two points of space together to allow fleets to move between gates extremely quickly, the only disadvantage being it a strict range limit.

Ten seconds.

In a war where all forces had reached a stalemate, even a small advantage could tip the scales.

"This could be fatal to the Coalition, thus our mission. We are to capture or destroy that gate."

The counter reached zero.

The engines pulsed. The ship leapt into the devouring maw. The fleets vanished from real space a moment later, following the flagship in its phase jump. The lights and colours changed into streaks of light and reality as the Hephaestus speared through the sub-dimension.

"Prepare for battle." The finality in his voice was unmistakable. Then it was gone in a burst of power and light, the giant vessel causing a large ripple in space. It was followed quickly by the fleets with their own, smaller ripples. The planet could be seen in the distance, heavily fortified. Not unexpected, though the two fleets duelling in front of it where more so. The sight out the viewport was of a titanic clash of the other contenders in this war of conquest, revenge and survival. The flowing designs of the Trans-humanist Advent ships lashed the bulky curves of the alien Vasari with their advanced laser weaponry and psi powered drone fighters while the while the Vasari fought back with their strange molten metal beams and nanite swarms. Both fleets were larger than the attacking Coalition forces, though the viscous battle was rectifying that rapidly. Alarms blared throughout the ship as the warring forces shifted to accommodate the newly arrived armada.

"The Fenrir is launching its assault!" Hammer never was one for stalling.

"Full attack, launch strike craft and prepare broadsides." Chekov commanded while rapidly revising his plans. Both attacking fleets leapt into action as the ship rocked with absorbed and deflected beams of energy and metal. Strike craft sped from hangars to intercept the approaching bombers and their deadly payloads. Nimble corvettes rushed to begin their duels of speed and skill beside fighters doing the same while flack fire filled the void. Frigates of various types activated their secondary ability's, trying to help their larger brethren while fighting to stop their counterparts from doing the same. Cruisers followed a similar plan while attempting to protect their smaller siblings. The capitals of the fleets smashed through all opposition to battle their rivals, soaking up huge amounts of damage while dealing it in kind. Then, giants among the throng, hundreds of kilometres long titans class vessels, and the flagships of their fleets squared off against their enemy counterpart. All around, debris and explosions accompanied the flying metal, lasers and missiles flying in every direction in the semi controlled chaos of battle.

Chekov directed everything while the attempting to use the Hephaestus's projected shield to best effect, while Hammer choose targets of importance to smash with the Fenrir's kilometre long spinal rail gun. All the while the Advent resurrected their fallen through their titan's powerful psi network and the Vasari titan devoured whole formations of ships in great vortexes of gravity, pulling them to their doom. Things seemed to be going rather well all things considered, with casualties merely in the tens of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands usually shown in this kind of battle. This changed abruptly.

"Enemy flagship has target lock!" shouted a panicked officer. Chekov barely had time to process this when a full missile swarm launched from one of the Vasari capitals. Phase missiles. He immediately recognised the approaching projectile. Phase missiles where powerful and terrifying weapons capable of short phase jumps past the shields and armour into key parts of vessels, with catastrophic results. And these were headed straight for the bridge. His eyes widened, Chekov shouted,

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!"


End file.
